As content marketing continues to rise, you need to seriously step up your strategy! To stay competitive, enter the era of storytelling. This marketing technique used by brands to convey a story aims to arouse emotion and interest from prospects and customers. Nevertheless, it has a weak point: those to whom it is addressed are mere spectators. Although they are the target, they are not an integral part of the process. This is where storymaking comes in…
Harnessing Consumer Creativity to Build Connections
The digital age has changed the way companies communicate with their consumers. Their creativity continues to grow in order to hold their attention, but also to give them more latitude to interact and participate in the process of creating a product, whatever its nature.
It’s not just the marketing teams working on the design anymore. Some brands even offer their consumers the opportunity to participate in games after which some will be drawn to go to the company and participate in the various stages that constitute it.
By integrating them, a communion is created between the company and its public, the latter having the feeling of belonging to the brand. This is all the more important when the latter commits itself to a cause, such as the protection of the environment or that of women’s rights, for example.
Storymaking as an acquisition lever
Storymaking is one of the acquisition levers used by companies to attract a younger clientele for whom the products put on the market are much more than a simple object to be acquired. Young people often identify with a particular brand. They want a brand that has a history, a success story. They want this one to be different from the others. The brand equity that was current until then has changed its appearance.
For a brand, being known is essential, but that is no longer enough. For this to continue, she must ensure that her audience is not just a spectator. It must be part of its success. The consumer is now part of the big family that is formed around his favorite brand. He feels involved in the life of the company or rather the brand.
Each new product is like its baby, and owning it is a real challenge. Thus, many consumers do not hesitate to queue for days to have the latest smartphone, for example, or to have the pair of fashionable sneakers.
Identify consumer digital behaviors
Brands have become aware of this parameter by inviting their customers to become actors both at the time of creation and when the product is found on the market. Thanks to their collaborative contribution, innovations are often a real break with what has been done before, which is a major asset for brands. Thus, they are constantly reinventing themselves and always being in line with the expectations of the public. But creating an emotional connection with consumers is not easy.
The integration of storymaking in the marketing strategy must be done differently to allow consumers to be part of the process. We must start by defining the digital communication channels preferred by consumers. It is for brands to find the best way to understand them and reach their main areas of interest.
In addition, they must call on the services of people with a perfect command of digital tools, because they are the ones who will support them in their approach to sharing their story and ensuring that it is also that of their audience.
The stages of creating the common story of the brand and consumers
Storymaking requires a company to know itself first, to be able to put a word on the values it conveys to its audience and then to be able to convince them. To do this, it is essential to understand it, so that the tone adopted is the one that best suits it. The goal is to meet their needs, solve their problems or enable them to achieve their dreams.
When all the data is collected, the story that will be created will be in accordance with the concept of storymaking: a story that is both that of the brand and that of the consumers.
To maintain the permanent attention of the public, rely on authentic facts, whether funny or sad, but constantly renewed. It is essential that the public can appropriate it and perpetuate the notoriety of the brand over time.